Former Penn State Officials To Stand Trial For Alleged Cover-Up Of Sandusky Scandal

Former Pennsylvania State University president Graham Spanier will stand trial along with two other ousted school administrators for an alleged cover-up of the sex scandal that rocked the university and its storied football program, the Associated Press reports.

The officials say that they didn't know about the sexual abuse before the scandal broke, but prosecutors now say they should have reported certain allegations to police.

Prosecutors also accuse the officials of covering up what they knew after the fact.

Spanier has admitted that he knew about one "shower incident" that a graduate assistant reported to school officials, but that he thought it was just Jerry Sandusky "horsing around" with a young boy on campus grounds. Sandusky, a legendary football coach for Penn State, was convicted last year of 45 counts of child sex abuse. He maintains his innocence.

In a damning report following the Sandusky trial, former judge and FBI director Louis Freeh said "the most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect" Sandusky's victims. Spanier denied the allegations in the Freeh Report, telling The New Yorker that his emails — in which he referenced "humane" ways to handle Sandusky and the child sex scandal — were taken out of context.

The other officials who will stand trial are former vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley.